Paradise or Oblivion

52:51

Their beauty has captivated us for millennia. Their cost can be extraordinary–some are even considered priceless. Precious gems like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, opal, and jade are the ultimate treasures of the earth, and each one is made from a specific–and often torturous–recipe of chemistry, pressure, and heat. The secrets to their sparkle, color, and even strength lie deep inside the gems themselves, but could they also hold clues to one of the most enduring mysteries in the field of geology? From Tiffany’s workshop in New York to the sapphire mines of Sri Lanka, from North Carolina’s emerald fields to the jade-laden Forbidden City of China.

Part 1 • Treasures of the Earth • 2016 • Environment

52:04

In the Vega Archipelago, in the north of Norway at the Arctic Circle, people have formed a unique partnership with wild eider ducks. The provide the birds with shelter in hatcheries, and in return, after the breeding season, collect the precious eiderdown, with which the ducks line their nests.

S1E4 • Paradise Preserved • 2019 • Environment

58:28

Prince William, Sir David Attenborough and Christiana Figueres highlight inspiring and often unexpected solutions to the climate challenge.

S1E2 • The Earthshot Prize Repairing Our Planet • 2021 • Environment

58:44

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to one of the most spectacular countries in the world - Colombia. For 50 years, Colombia has been in the grip of a brutal civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced seven million. But in late 2016, a peace deal was signed promising to end the conflict and finally bring peace to the country. In this hour-long documentary for the award-winning This World strand, Simon explores Colombia at a pivotal point in its history. He travels into the jungle and comes face to face with the guerrilla army FARC, which is now promising to lay down arms. In the Pacific coast city of Buenaventura, Simon finds out more about the fearsome right-wing paramilitary gangs who now dominate the cocaine trade. As the FARC abandon the countryside, there is a fear that these groups will only grow in power. Travelling in the countryside, Simon meets the coca farmers who are demanding government support to stop growing coca and stop the flow of money to criminal gangs. With land ownership, poverty and drugs at the heart of Colombia's problems, it is in the countryside that the country's precarious future will be decided.

This World • 2017 • Environment

47:20

As climate change begins to feel like an impossible challenge, this documentary tells the story of the first man-made threat to the planet's environment - the hole in the ozone layer - and how the world managed to fix it. The scientists and politicians at the heart of the story reveal how they spotted the giant hole in the stratosphere and, against all odds, persuaded Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher - two of the most unlikely eco-warriors in history - to take action.

2018 • Environment

41:57

When a gamma ray burst from two colliding stars hits the atmosphere, the deadly radiation delivers agonizing death and immediately wipes out half the planet. How will the last remaining humans survive?

S1E7 • Doomsday: 10 Ways the World Will End • 2016 • Environment